Any student taking Fundamentals of Biology or Intro to Biology will be interested to hear that the RWC English Department is now extending a helping hand. The English Department is seeking to provide a solution to the trouble so many students have found when attempting to utilize the complicated and sometimes confusing books assigned in many courses.
Prof. R. E. Benander pointed out that many students can feel snowed under by the expense of these books and find that they appear to be written in pretty rarefied language.
Beginning this semester, the English Department is offering a one-credit English class focusing on reading comprehension of the text. Students will read selections from the Biology book used in their actual class and then do exercises to make the knowledge in the text more accessible.
Because most of the Biology courses are five credits, this one-hour course will conveniently allow students to have an even six credits, and simplify achieving full time student status.
According to Prof. Benander, this could be the beginning of the English Department finding new ways to support students in their classes outside of Composition and Study Skills courses. On top of similar courses for the other sciences, it may be possible to expand to a series of many other supplemental reading courses for Business and Economics, Nursing, and other regular courses. Also, in order to support the constantly growing number of international students, the Department intends to add a group of new English as a Second Language (ESL) courses, Prof. Benander said.